In ancient China, portentology was a “science” in its own right, a specialised field of knowledge developed by rational individuals who endeavoured to fathom the concealed mechanisms at work beneath the spectacles of history and the world at large. This paper focuses on the nomenclature of portents (observed phenomena interpreted as auspicious or…[Read more]

The rapid development and adoption of technological care equipment for remote monitoring, self-diagnosis and other forms of telemedicine risks splitting care work: on the one hand, well-paid professionals developing or operating new technologies; on the other, much poorer and much less qualified assistants to take care of the operations that are…[Read more]

This article explores three facets of green space within a medieval monastic context: its origin, its effects and properties and the way it was shaped into an expression of power. We learn a great deal about the history of green space through the nuances of monastic thought and vice versa. The term ‘green space’ in a medieval context may ini…[Read more]

This is a chronological comparative study of five visual artefacts spanning about a millennium in Chinese history and retrieved from various sources included in the mid-fifteenth century collection called in English the Taoist Canon. All five specimens are basically titled “Taiping fu” 太平符 in Chinese, literally “Great Peace Symbol”. By briefly in…[Read more]

“Buddho-Taoism” is a neologism that appeared in Western academic discourse during the late nineteen-forties, was put to various uses without being consensually defined, enjoyed a brief vogue around the turn of the twenty-first century, and began to fall from grace in recent years. This neologism implicitly created new epistemic repertoires der…[Read more]

Diplomatische Transkription und Leseversion nach Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 1500,7, fol. 38r-43v

Das Wunderbare in der deutschsprachigen Rezeptliteratur des 15. Jahrhunderts, in: Stefanie Kreuzer und Uwe Durst (Hg.), Das Wunderbare. Dimensionen eines Phänomens in Kunst und Kultur (Traum – Wissen – Erzählen 3), Paderborn: Fink 2018, S. 233–250.

IL REALE E L’IMMAGINARIO. Critica dell’infinito e dell’infinitesimo. Continuo reale e ideale. La metafisica del calcolo. Immaginario e immaginazione. Bibliografia

METAFISICA E MATEMATICA. Continuo e discreto. L’ambiguità dell’attimo. Il principio di continuità. Forza viva e forza morta. Tra Platone e Democrito

L’INTERPRETAZIONE DEL CALCOLO. Il nuovo secolo. La ripresa delle ostilità. La giustificazione del calcolo infinitesimale. Tra sé e sé. Interpretazione e immaginario. Regole e princìpi

LE PRIME CONTROVERSIE. Quantità incomparabilmente piccole. Il primo contendente. La disputa con Nieuwentijt. Irrealtà dell’infinitesimo. Ultimi strascichi polemici

LA PUBBLICAZIONE DEL METODO. Un nuovo algoritmo. La scuola concorrente. Flussioni nel tempo e nello spazio

LA NASCITA DEL CALCOLO LEIBNIZIANO: La geometria degli indivisibili. Infiniti indivisibili attuali. Gli anni d’apprendistato di Leibniz. L’aritmetica degli infinit.i Verso l’analisi infinitesimale. Il triangolo caratteristico. La fondazione del calcolo

INTRODUZIONE: Metafisica dell’infinitamente piccolo. L’analisi leibniziana. L’infinitesimo e il calcolo. La scomposizione del mutamento

A particular aspect of the confrontation between modern philosophy and the aristotelian tradition regards the so-called psychology of faculties. On this ground, it is for modern thought much harder, in comparison to the field of natural sciences, to differentiate itself from concepts, theories, and terminologies which characterize the still…[Read more]

The paper deals with Leibniz’s manuscript writings on the foundation of infinitesimal calculus since 1702: the mathematician’s late theory, and the preparatory works to his “Cum prodiisset atque increbuisset”, are presented. An edition of Leibniz’s unpublished DEFENSE DU CALCUL DE DIFFERENCES is provided as an Appendix.

The Centre for Post Digital Cultures invites you to its second annual conference, which will explore the phenomenon of ‘Pirate Care’. The term Pirate Care (Graziano, 2018) condenses two processes that are particularly visible at present. On the one hand, basic care provisions that were previously considered cornerstones of social life are now…[Read more]

Introduction to special issue of IJHS: The Gift in India in Theory and Practice

During nonemergency appointments at traditional sites of āyurvedic healthcare in Kerala, South India, classically trained Brāhmaṇa physicians and their patients seldom exchange anything of substance (whether medicinal or monetary). The physician-patient interface instead routinely involves an exchange of knowledge. Interactions between phy…[Read more]

As the Indian population’s interest in biomedicine increased at the end of the nineteenth century, public confidence in India’s indigenous medicines flagged. Physicians of Ayurveda and officials of Indian medical organizations responded with discussions about and plans for reconfiguring the āyurveda (“life science”) of the Sanskrit medical…[Read more]